A significant amount of research has been directed both to the direct and indirect stimulation of nerves including the left and right vagus nerves, the sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves, the phrenic nerve, the sacral nerve, and the cavernous nerve to treat a wide variety of medical, psychiatric, and neurological disorders or conditions. More recently, stimulation of the vagus nerve has been proposed as a method for treating various heart conditions, including heart failure.
Typically in the past, nerve stimulating electrodes were cuffs placed in direct contact with the nerve to be stimulated. A much less invasive approach is to stimulate the nerve through an adjacent vein using an intravascular lead. A lead including one or more electrodes is inserted into a patient's vasculature and delivered at a site within a vessel adjacent a nerve to be stimulated. However, without any additional means of stabilizing the lead within the vein, the lead can move and/or rotate causing the electrodes to migrate from the stimulation site.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a mechanism to minimize intravascular lead rotation and movement and to allow for consistent and reliable delivery of chronic therapy.